Harley Flanagan is the co-founder of Cro-Mags and a Hardcore punk legend, but he’s also one of the early adopters of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the United States. We recently managed to interview Flanagan ahead of the release of his upcoming film, Harley Flanagan: Wired For Chaos, and he opened up about how finding the martial art ultimately changed his life. Not only did he start training long before the vast majority of celebrity BJJ practitioners discovered the sport, but also before most the current generation of competitors were even born. It was back when the sport was still in its infancy; when the Gracie family and the Machado brothers were the biggest proponents.
Flanagan’s first exposure to Jiu-Jitsu actually took place well over 30 years ago, when the sport first started to get mainstream exposure:
“I actually first discovered it with UFC 1 and 2, and like everybody else I was immediately like ‘what’s going on here!? This is amazing!’”
Although he was interested in Jiu-Jitsu then, it wasn’t until 1996 that Flanagan actually got the chance to start training:
“I was travelling a lot and no Gracies had moved to New York yet. They were all on the west coast and I had been bouncing around the west coast but I’m from New York and when I wound up back in New York… back then we didn’t have all this internet stuff, so I was literally going to corner stores and looking in the back of Black Belt Magazine and Kung Fu Magazine and looking through the ads in the back, which is how I found Renzo’s first academy. That was where it started for me and it was a really small group of people… There was only one other black belt there besides Renzo (Gracie), couple of brown belts and purple belts, but this was before the whole onslaught of Gracies that moved to New York and all the guys that started fighting in PRIDE FC. This was pretty early on.”
Harley Flanagan still trains Jiu-Jitsu regularly today almost 30 years after first putting on a gi, and he explained why he still pushes himself in the mats:
“I do this because I love it, not because I’m trying to be like a top-level competitor out there. I mean, Christ, I’m almost 60. This really keeps me in shape. I go in there, honestly I get my a** kicked more than not. I’m training with guys that are bigger than me, better than me, younger than me. If I get a couple of good sweeps or get good positioning and finish somebody, I feel like I just won UFC, you know?… At the end of the day I’m pushing 60 and I’m still in there grinding, having a great time and taking the lumps.”
Although he might be getting older, Flanagan isn’t exactly taking it easy when he trains:
”I leave it all out there, man. I grind hard, I sweat it out, I feel good. There’s a sense of, you know, I’m pushing myself. It gives me that fire. It keeps that fire burning. That’s what you need to go through life. You need to be willing to take the a**-beating and not give up, keep going back, and that’s what sets us apart from the people who f***ing fail at life, you know?”
Although Jiu-Jitsu itself has given Harley Flanagan a lot, one of the biggest impacts on his life has actually come from his relationship with Renzo:
“He’s really been more like a brother and a friend than like some kind of… He is my master in so many ways but it’s not some sort of weird hierarchy. There’s a real, genuine love there… I couldn’t have a higher respect for someone, you know? He’s been a friend to me, he’s taught me Jiu-Jitsu; which has been so metaphoric for my personal transformation. He’s been there in times of need for me, he walked me through and was there next to me for so many difficult times in my life that no martial arts master that I’ve ever heard of has been with any of his students… Renzo really put his arm around me when I really needed someone, for a long time. For my kids’ entire lives. I owe that man a great deal.”
The full interview with Harley Flanagan where he talks about how Jiu-Jitsu changed his life is now available to watch on the official Jits Magazine YouTube channel, click here to subscribe for more or check out the interview below. Tickets are also available for the Q&A screenings of Harley Flanagan: Wired For Chaos at the links below:
- Finsbury Park Picturehouse, London: Thurs 6th Nov @ 7PM (TICKET LINK)
- Cultplex, Manchester: Fri 7th Nov @ 7:30PM (TICKET LINK)
- Mockingbird Cinema, Birmingham: Sun 9th Nov @ 7PM (TICKET LINK)
- Duke’s At Komedia Picturehouse, Brighton: Mon 10th Nov @ 7:45PM (TICKET LINK)
- Ritzy Picturehouse, London: Tues 11th Nov @ 8PM (TICKET LINK)
